Aston Villa carved out a vital three points today in an absolutely enthralling battle against Everton at Villa Park with Luke Young providing the only goal of the game in sublime, if unlikely style.

The day didn’t get off to the best of starts when Stephen Ireland pulled a hamstring in the warm up, but his replacement, Nigel Reo-Coker, probably provided that little extra steel that would prove vital in the middle. Nathan Delfouneso took Nigel’s place on the bench.

Everton started brightly, moving the ball around well, but Villa opened the scoring against the run of play in the 9th minute when Luke Young latched on to Ashley Young’s superbly weighted through ball and delivered an inch perfect left footed shot, curling around Tim Howard into the top corner.

Steven Pienaar struck the woodwork with a lovely long range effort from Everton’s left flank, Brad Friedel had completely given up, thinking it was a certain goal and would have been relieved to see the ball rebound back into play and his grasp.

Everton controlled much of the possession through the half, owning 68% of the ball by the break, but couldn’t break Villa down. Marc Albrighton struggling to keep tabs on Leighton Baines who got in behind the defence on a couple of occasions, but without an end product.

Albrighton made a couple of mazey runs at the other end, almost winning a penalty right before half time, although it would probably have been a weak one had it been given.

The second half started as a gritty, at times very open, battle as Everton pressed for an equaliser and Villa looked to take advantage of the space at the back. John Carew coming into his own and Ashley Young making a couple of tenacious, twisting runs through the middle.

By the time Gabby came on for Carew in the 68th minute the game had opened into a full on end to end scrap that the neutrals absolutely loved, but those of us desperate for Villa to hold on to the three points were chewing our nails off.

A full report and statshack will follow later when my heart rate returns to something approaching normal. For now, it was an extremely spirited display that presented Villa with more chances than the single goal might suggest, but Everton could easily have hooked up as Newcastle did on another day.

But they didn’t, it’s three vital points and what could be a season defining fortnight ahead. Some important and very tough decisions have to be made and while we sit 4th in the table right now, that’s after beating two sides who occupy positions in the bottom three and a thumping loss to a side fresh from a season in the Championship.

Definitely the result and effort we needed to see after Thursday’s disappointment, but plenty of work lies ahead.